


Portals, Clones, and Time Travel. Oh My!

by Ashitheviolinist7



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Drama, Multi, Post-Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Pre-Time Skip, Strong Haruno Sakura, Time Travel, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Uchiha Sasuke Being an Asshole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-04-26 10:29:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14400258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashitheviolinist7/pseuds/Ashitheviolinist7
Summary: Team Konohamaru has been put on a supposedly simple mission with Sasuke Uchiha, but nothing ever goes right now does it? After some trouble with dimensional portals and some dabble in time, team Konohamaru teams up with team Kakashi. Hopefully they will be able to stop the mastermind and get home safe. Read to find out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is probably the first fanfiction I've ever written (the writing in the beginning might be a little bad). It was inspired by Kuriquinn's An Inch of Gold (which is incredible).

Sarada reached for her katana and activated her sharingan. The mission was supposed to be a simple C rank escort but nothing ever goes right with her team now does it. They had recently found themselves in the middle of an interdimensional, possibly time warping incident that required her father Sasuke Uchiha to use the extent of his rinnegan just to keep them from zipping off into some random dimension. Oh, right, there were also enemy ninjas from the original escort mission and Sarada was in charge of getting rid of all of them and watching out for dimensional holes with her sharingan. 

“Boruto, Mitsuki!” She exclaimed, jabbing her sword behind her and impaling the incoming enemy, “Avoid the area 30 feet to your left. I’m not sure, but I think it’s a portal!” 

Boruto and Mitsuki nodded and ran back over to Sasuke, lending him more chakra. Sarada’s attacks were slowing after the myriad of enemies she had taken down. They honestly seemed endless. Sarada wasn’t the only one tiring out. Sasuke was having difficulties keeping the seemingly infinite amount of portals from opening and sucking them all into abysmal nothingness. Or maybe a warzone, or some time in the future. The point was, they were seriously screwed and they were running out of ways to fix it. 

 

Life was a crap ton calmer on Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke’s side. No dimensional holes and portals opening at random, no endless army of enemy ninja, just one knucklehead and a subtle portal that not even Kakashi of the sharingan noticed. 

“Hurry up usuratonkachi.” Sasuke said, scanning the area with his sharingan, “Let’s finish this stupid mission and be done with it. All we need is a few of these chakra-replenishing plants and we’re done. Don’t screw this up.”

“Yeah Naruto!” Sakura announced, dealing him a knock on the back of his head. 

“I’m coming ya know!” Naruto whined, rubbing the spot where Sakura hit him. 

“Wait.” Sasuke said abruptly, “Something’s off.”

“I agree.” Kakashi replied, “Be on the lookout, I don’t know how to describe it, but there’s just-something.”

“I-is it a genjutsu?” Sakura asked worriedly, preparing to dispel it, “Kai!” 

Nothing happened. 

“I don’t know what it is but keep your guard up.” Kakashi warned.

Right as he was finished speaking, Naruto came bounding toward Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura. He overshot, being the klutz he was known to be, and fell face first into… a crack in the air?!

“Naruto you idiot!” Sakura screeched, “What did you do?!” 

A blinding light consumed the team of genin as Sakura screamed insults at Naruto. 

Sasuke’s chakra was depleting rapidly, forcing him to leave a few portals open. Unfortunately, the second group of unsuspecting genin walked straight into an open one.

“Papa!” Sarada screamed as the bright light consumed her and her teammates. 

Sarada squeezed her onyx eyes closed, secretly hoping this was all a nightmare. When she opened her eyes, she was laying on the forest ground. It seemed to be night in this dimension, yet it was pleasantly warm. She blinked several times, and looked around. There were her teammates, sprawled on the grassy ground, unconscious. And three other kids. One of the kids, sat up groggily, eyes half closed. 

“What the fuck just happened.” The raven haired child asked quietly.

Sarada gasped upon realizing that this foul-mouthed, duckbutt-haired kid was her father. As a child of course. 

“P-What are you doing here?!” She exclaimed, careful not to reveal her identity. 

“Who are you?” Young Sasuke asked, taking a defensive stance, “You seem to be a Konoha ninja yet I’ve never seen you in the village.”

“I could say the same about you.” Sarada replied, wanting to confirm that this ninja was really her father, “You wear the Uchiha crest. Do you possess the sharingan?”

“Hn.” Sasuke replied, demonstrating his dojutsu, “How am I supposed to prove that you are not an enemy?”

Sarada assessed her situation. There was no way in hell it was safe to reveal her identity now so that was out of the question. But the Hokage seemed like decent proof. 

“The Hokage of Konoha right now is Tsunade Senju.” Sarada replied.

“Anyone could find that out. Tell me something less obvious.”

“Her pig’s name is Tonton.” Sarada was suddenly insanely grateful for all the uncomfortable time she spent with Grandma Tsunade and all of her mom’s endless rants about her brutal training. 

Sasuke raised one eyebrow and let his guard down, “I’ll trust you for now but if you do anything suspicious, I will not be afraid to end you.”

“Okay then, no need to be so intense shannaro!”

Sasuke’s eyes widened, “Only Sakura says that. What are you hiding?!”

“Fine!” Sarada exclaimed, “I’m a huge Sakura fan and actually adopted her catchphrase while learning about her. It’s really embarrassing!” Sarada almost enjoyed lying to her father, especially since he seemed to believe it wholeheartedly.

Sasuke muttered something under his breath along the lines of ‘girls tend to be like that’ and responded with a bitter ‘fine’. 

Sarada sighed and went to go wake her teammates up. She was about to turn around when she realized she had the Uchiha symbol emblazoned on her back. She walked backwards slowly, grabbed Boruto’s jacket from his unconscious body, draped it over her, and proceeded to wake him up. 

“Boruto!” She whispered, “Wake up but don’t you dare say a thing. And whatever you do, don’t say dattebane, got it?”

Boruto’s eyes fluttered open as he nodded confusedly. 

“Whatever you say Sarada.” He muttered, “Hey where’s my jacket-why are you wearing it?!”

“Look around closely and you’ll understand.” 

Boruto scanned the area, gasped, and nodded quickly. “Yeah. I get it.”

Sarada sighed and went to go wake Mitsuki up.

“Wake up.” She said, pulling him to his feet, “Knowing you, you already know what’s going on so I trust you not to say anything stupid.” 

Mitsuki nodded in understanding. 

“Hello Sasuke Uchiha!” He said pleasantly.

Sasuke turned around abruptly, “How do you know my name?”

“Why everyone knows about the Uchiha prodigy now don’t they?” Mitsuki responded, still smiling brightly.

“Sasuke?” A sweet, quiet voice asked, “What happened?”

The young girl stood up slowly. “Who are you guys?” She asked, eyeing Sarada, Boruto, and Mitsuki.

“I’m Sarada.” Sarada stated, “That’s Boruto, and that’s Mitsuki.” 

The pinkette nodded in acknowledgment and walked over to Naruto who she proceeded to beat up. 

“Naruto you idiot!” She yelled, “This is all your stupid fault! Kakashi-sensei specifically said to be careful but  _ no _ you rush off and pull us into this stupid mess!”

“Owww!” Naruto whined, “Sakura-chan, that  _ hurt _ ! Wait, where are we?”

“Probably in another dimension.” Boruto replied, “Unc-Sensei was umm talking about weird portals showing up around where we were so it only makes sense.”

“Whoah. So is this like the ghost dimension or something?” Naruto asked, a clueless smile spreading across his face. 

“Of course not dummy!” Sakura replied, punching him in the arm.

“Why are you always hurting me Sakura?”

“Yeah, why are you always hurting him ma-Sakura?” Sarada asked, butting in. 

“You don’t know anything about him.” Sakura shot back, flipping her long pink hair, “Trust me, if you knew what he was like, you’d be punching him too.”

Sarada smirked, “Fine then. I’ll take your word for it.” 

“All this small talk is great and all,” Boruto started, “But why don’t we address the elephant in the room. How the hell did we get here?” 

“Well there was this light and-” Naruto started, but was interrupted by Mitsuki.

“Sorry to interrupt, but it’s obvious that someone is manipulating these portals. And not to reveal too much, I assure you, we’re from different timelines.” He stated, still smiling, “I presume some mastermind wants to find a time-neutral zone and take all the enemies from the past and future and pitch them against each other, causing a devastating war.” 

The genin looked frankly taken aback.

“How on earth did you find all this information?!” Boruto exclaimed, “And if you knew before all this, why the fuck didn’t you tell us?!”

“Because it wasn’t pertinent.” He replied.

“How is an all out, annihilating potential war not pertinent?” Sarada asked, looking extremely confused. 

“Well I didn’t think it would actually happen. See, my parent was talking about how he had overheard some plans for this years ago. Since it hadn’t happened since then, I really couldn’t assume it would happen now.” 

“The ton of spontaneously opening portals wasn’t proof enough?!” Boruto spat, always questioning his teammates antics. 

“Shut up you three.” Sasuke commanded, “Someone’s here.”

  
  
  


 

                                              


	2. Chapter 2

“Shut up you three.” Sasuke commanded, “Someone’s here.”

The genin assembled into a defensive formation, weapons brandished. 

“Show yourself!” Sarada exclaimed, careful not to activate her sharingan and blow her cover. 

A tall, slim figure emerged from the shadows. From the looks of the body, the stranger was female. She had long, black hair, tied in a loose braid. Her eyes were red and cold, making her seem more terrifying than she already did. 

“Who are you?” Boruto asked, prepping for a rasengan, “Tell us now!”

The woman chuckled softly. “I have no interest in you.” She stated frankly. Her voice was sharp and flat, “Give me the Uchiha boy. That’s all.”

“You’re not getting Sasuke-kun!” Sakura shrieked, “If you want him, you’ll have to get through me first!”

“Quiet little girl.” She teased, “I only want his eyes. If he doesn’t bleed out after the extraction, you can keep him.”

“What would you do if we said no?” Boruto asked, gritting his teeth, “You wouldn’t hurt a bunch of innocent kids would you?”

The woman chuckled again. “You underestimate me. I will do whatever it takes to get what I need. And you won’t interfere.”

“Try me.” He growled, throwing a barrage of kunai at the enemy. 

She gracefully dodged them and appeared behind Boruto, knocking him clean off his feet. Sarada jumped into action, drawing her newly acquired katana. Sasuke had gotten it for her thirteenth birthday and she’s been training with it non-stop. She leaped toward the enemy, bringing her sword down in one clean arc. Her attack too was blocked and quickly countered with several rapid fire kicks. Sarada went flying backward, careful to break her fall. Before she attacked again, Mitsuki wrapped his stretchy arms around the woman. Noticing the opening, Sarada ran towards Mitsuki and drove her sword into the body of the enemy. As soon as contact was made, her body dissipating in a puff of smoke and was replaced with a log. 

“Goddamn substitution jutsu!” Sarada cursed, pulling her sword out and jumping back into a defensive stance, “I don’t even care about this enemy any more! We need to get Sasuke and the rest of us the hell out of here!” 

Sakura pulled a smoke bomb out of her bag and threw it behind them as they ran as far away from the enemy as possible. 

They ran through a rather normal forest, making sure to take as many twists and turns as possible. 

“So, Mitsuki mentioned something about you being from different time streams,” Sakura started, “What point in time are you from?”

“I don’t think it’s safe to tell you that.” Mitsuki responded, “You don’t want to mess up the timestream.”

“Hmph. Fine then.”

“Let’s find a place where we can figure out what’s going on.” Sarada suggested, “Right now, the only way we can escape is far behind us and occupied by an enemy.”

Sasuke stopped abruptly at a small cave. 

“Let’s go in here.” He ordered. 

A musty smell filled Sakura’s nostrils as she gagged quietly. 

“It smells like death in here.” She groaned, plugging her nose, “Can we stay anywhere else?”

“Can you suggest any better places?” Sasuke retorted, lighting a small fire with his fireball jutsu.

“So,” Naruto started, eyes narrowing, “Tell me, who are you and where are you from? Also, Boruto, why do you have those whiskers on your face like I do?”

“Oh it’s ‘cause-” Boruto started before being tackled to the ground by Sarada, in hopes to stop him from revealing confidential information. 

As Sarada threw Boruto to the ground, the jacket she was wearing to cover her Uchiha symbol went flying off. 

“How do you have the Uchiha symbol?” Sasuke asked, grabbing Sarada by the collar and holding her up to his face. 

Sarada glared back, undaunted. It was no use now, why not reveal her sharingan? She activated her recently fully-matured sharingan and looked deep in Sasuke’s eyes, causing him to drop her. 

“You understand why now?” Sarada snarled, “I’m obviously an Uchiha and I don’t appreciate having my fa-relative threaten me like that. Now I could be from the past or future, that doesn’t matter.”

“I know you’re from the future.” Sasuke sighed, “Mitsuki gave it away when he mentioned everyone knowing my name. If you were from the past, no one would know squat about me.”

Mitsuki smiled subtly, “He’s not dumb.” He stated, his bright yellow eyes glowing vividly in the dimly lit cave. 

A sudden realization washed over Sasuke. “Y-you’re my daughter.” He muttered, his body tensing. 

“I could be from any other generation.” She replied worriedly, “You can’t know that I’m your daughter.”

“Yes I can.” 

“How?” Sarada’s eyes were wide, “What proof do you have?”

“I always wanted name my child Sarada.” Sasuke said, his voice reduced to a whisper, “And your eyes, they’re not mine, but my father’s.” 

Sarada stood staring into Sasuke’s dark eyes. She’d seen many emotions from those eyes but what she was witnessing now wasn’t one of them. There were hints of awe and sadness in those familiar eyes but also triumph and happiness. 

“Who’s the mother?!” Sakura cried, breaking the tension, “It’s not Ino is it?!”

“I can’t mess up the time stream more than it already is.” Sarada sighed, “But I can tell you, my mother is the strongest kunoichi in the world.”

Sakura’s head fell. He probably went and married some girl from another village. Some girl with crazy skills. 

“W-wait!” Naruto exclaimed, “That makes you my son!” He pointed accusingly at Boruto. 

“Hehe, hit the nail on the head.” Boruto admitted, blushing slightly. 

“And you?” Naruto pointed at Mitsuki, “You look weird. I don’t even know who you look like.” 

A shiver ran up Sasuke’s spine. Something about that kid made him uncomfortable. 

“My lineage has no importance to this situation.” He stated, “There are several tunnels in this cave and I can sense a strange chakra coming from them. Maybe there’s a way to get out.”

“Brilliant,” Sakura muttered, “follow the weird chakra in a place where we were ambushed the second we arrived here.”

“Oooh!” Sarada cooed, “Sakura’s got some real attitude over here!” 

Sakura glared at the Uchiha. She was living proof that Sasuke didn’t like her. Living proof that Sasuke found someone better. A feeling of resentment towards the kunoichi bubbled to the surface as her glare intensified. 

“Get down!” Boruto yelled, dropping to the hard floor of the cave. 

Several shuriken flew over the genin’s head, impaling themselves in a wall. 

“Damn it!” Boruto spat, “Not another enemy!” 

“Let’s get out of here, through the front of the cave!” Naruto suggested running towards the mouth of the cave. 

He stopped abruptly and hastily pulled out a kunai. 

“Never mind,” he muttered, “not going that way.”

A hideous beast emerged from the shadows, right in front of Naruto. The beast had greasy, matted fur, frothing fangs, and too many eyes to count. 

“Eww!” Sarada groaned, “It looks like a demented spider!” 

“Finish it Naruto!” Sasuke ordered, “We don’t have time to deal with this!” 

Naruto threw his kunai at the beast, all of them hitting their target. The ‘demented spider’ fell like a log, allowing the children to pass. 

“I’m getting this crazy feeling that there are more of those creepy-ass things in the direction we’re going.” Boruto said worriedly. 

“As much as I hate to say it, Boruto’s right.” Sarada sighed. 

“Yeah Sarada agrees with me-WAIT!”

“Shut up mini-dobe.” Sasuke spat, “We’re trapped here. You understand that, right?”

Right on cue, the evil lady from before walked towards the genin. With every step she took, her hips swayed, making her pitch-black braid move from side-to-side. 

“You thought you could escape?” She asked menacingly, blood red eyes glinting in the darkness, “I’m going to get Sasuke Uchiha and you’re not going to get in my way.”

“We already said no!” Sarada growled, “And we don’t go back on our word. Right Naruto?”

“Yeah!” Naruto replied, adjusting his hitaite, “And Sasuke’s our comrade, you can’t take him from us!”

The enemy cackled, “You pathetic little children really think that you can beat me?” 

“Yeah.” Boruto said, “Yeah we do.”

“Don’t get overconfident! You don’t know how strong she is!” Sakura advised.

“We’ll be fine.” Sarada said, “She’s just a crazy lady from another dimension. Nothing much.”

Naruto launched at the enemy, several shadow clones backing him up. The woman's eyes zipped from one clone to the next destroying them with a single hit. Within a few seconds, all the clones had been destroyed. 

"I'm not done yet!" Naruto exclaimed, brandishing a glowing rasengan. 

He charged forward, the spinning ball of chakra lighting the cave up. The enemy jumped out of the way at the last second, just to be axe-kicked in the head by Sarada. No normal human being should be able to emerge from one of Sarada's attacks conscious. Much less unscathed. But this lady must have been a freak of nature, because she stood right back up, throwing Sarada violently to the wall. The minimal scratches that adorned her body disappeared as her body was surrounded by a strong, evil chakra. 

"Oh shit." Boruto muttered, "We're really screwed."

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'll have you know that I'm going to go into more depth with the relationships in the following chapters. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Please leave kudos and comments!


	3. Chapter 3

“I can’t believe we’re doing this again, but we need to get the fuck out of here!” Sarada exclaimed, “Sakura, smoke bomb!”

Sakura sighed and threw the smoke bomb behind them as the ran to the mouth of the cave, killing any disgusting monsters they came across. Once they were back in the open forest, the ran to the west, hoping to lose the crazy lady once and for all. 

The six genin settled in a clearing. There were thick bushes surrounding them, and tall trees blocking the sun above them. 

Naruto began talking, “So we really didn’t get enough time to talk about this.” He started, “Boruto, you-you’re my son?”

“Yeah.” Boruto replied. 

“So I have a family?” 

“Yeah.”

Naruto looked at Boruto, eyes full of awe and happiness as tears began to fall. 

“I have a family ya know!” He exclaimed, “A family! And a strong son! A family!”

Sarada couldn’t help but giggle happily at the sight of the seventh hokage crying like a baby over his son. He never really expected Naruto to be such a well… not very bright clutz, but hey, look where he turned out.

“Sarada.” Sasuke said, not looking at her, “My brother, I killed him right? You’re alive, so I must’ve.”

“I can’t tell you that.” Sarada was freaking out in her mind. Her father always talked so highly of Itachi. How he was the savior of the leaf, the best Uchiha. There’s no way he killed him! It was well known that Itachi was dead, but Sarada had thought that he had died for the sake of the village. Her father couldn’t have killed him! Or maybe-maybe that’s what he meant when he said he had to go atone for his sins. Maybe he still hasn’t forgiven himself for killing such an amazing shinobi. 

“One more thing.” Sasuke replied menacingly, “You’ve mentioned all of us being in your time stream. All of us but Sakura. Is she even alive?!”

Sarada clenched her fist. Hatred for her father, or at least this version was reaching a boiling point. “Why should I tell you that?” She snapped, “If I tell you, you might just go and kill her yourself to achieve that mangekyou sharingan you want to acquire! Why should I trust  _ you _ ?! The person who doesn’t care about his comrades, he just wants to be stronger. You don’t care about her wellbeing, you don’t care about anybody.” Sarada was panting now. “At least, not yet.” The last sentence came out as a whisper, inaudible to Sasuke. 

“I don’t want to kill Sakura!” Sasuke exclaimed, “I just don’t want anyone else that I care about ending up dead!” The look on Sasuke’s face suggested that he didn’t expect those words to come out of his mouth. And honestly, neither did Sarada. 

Sarada gave Sasuke one more resentful glare before turning her back and sitting down. She heard a soft whimper come from the corner of the clearing. Sakura had isolated herself from the group after hearing what they were discussing. 

_ Do I really die? Does Sasuke really kill me?!  _ She thought, as tears poured down her face.

Sarada saw the sad, shaking figure of her mother, and walked over to her. She wasn’t accustomed to seeing her so weak, but she did know what always cheered her up. Knowing that Sasuke loved her. After everything that had happened, all the secrets that had been revealed, there was no point in keeping this secret now. 

“Sakura.” Sarada said, sitting down next to her, “Sakura. You are an incredible kunoichi and are very much alive in my time. It’s even widely known that you are  _ the strongest kunoichi in the world _ . You are the best medical ninja in all of history, you have a loving husband, and a daughter that would screw up the timestream just to make you happy. Don’t worry about Sasuke. He loves you more than anything. And I would know because I’m your daughter.”

Sakura’s eyes lit up. There were still tears falling down her face, but at least she was smiling. 

“Really?!” She exclaimed, “Really? I can’t believe! Sasuke he-my daughter-I have a daughter-and a husband who-Sasuke married me?!” 

“Well, I have your forehead and eyes and Sasuke’s hair and dojutsu. Unless you have an identical twin, yeah. You’re my mom.”

Sakura pulled Sarada into a warm embrace. It wasn’t nearly as hard as Sarada was used to, but Sakura still smelled the same. Her soft pink hair smelled sweet and floral, and her arms, though lacking the muscle she had become accustomed to, were still as familiar and comforting. 

“Well all this loving stuff is great and all but we really need to focus on the problem at hand.” Sarada said, walking back towards the group. “This crazy lady is probably on her way right now, and we really aren’t strong enough to fight her. Unless…” Sarada stared at Naruto and Sasuke. “I’m going to need you both to use the extent of your powers. Can you do that for me?”

Naruto looked down at his feet. At some point in his life he had obviously told everyone about the nine tailed fox but he wasn’t ready now. 

“I get what you mean my having Sasuke use the extent of his powers but what does Naruto have to do with it?” Sakura asked.

Naruto tried to avoid making eye contact with the rest of the genin. 

“Naruto what does Sarada mean?” Sakura asked again. 

“It’s nothing really.” Naruto muttered, “It doesn’t really matter.”

“What. Does. Sarada. Mean.” Sakura reiterated, accenting every word.

Naruto sighed. So many secrets were being revealed today but this one, he didn’t know how his friends would react. “You know the nine tailed beast?” He asked, already feeling a weight be lifted off his chest. “Well, when it attacked the village, the fourth hokage, he-he sealed it in me. By using the extent of my powers, I would be tapping into the nine-tails chakra within me.”

A strange, foreign sound filled the clearing, causing Boruto to reel back in something that felt like disgust. The sound was coming from someone inside the clearing. It was Sasuke. 

“What the hell Sasuke?!” Naruto exclaimed, taken aback, “Why are you laughing?!”

“This isn’t good.” Sarada muttered, “He never laughs. Not like this at least.”

“This isn’t the time to have developed a sense of humor!” Naruto said, stepping away from Sasuke, “Much less have a mental breakdown!”

“It’s just,” Sasuke replied between terrifying giggles, “It explains so much! He’s not learning faster than me, he just has a crazy demon inside him!”

Mitsuki stepped into the circle. “When people have jarring realizations, they tend to respond strangely. It seems as if Sasuke Uchiha has snapped.”

“I can’t have my husband going crazy now!” Sakura announced.

Sasuke turned towards Sakura, his giggling halted. His onyx eyes widened as he took what Sakura had just said. He marries her. The only girl who ever cared for him. The only girl who he actually thought about, married him. And they had a child. A child. A strong Uchiha girl with an advanced sharingan. All of this information was far too overwhelming, causing Sasuke to do something no one expected. He fainted. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, I just had to end it there or else I'd never be able to! If you notice any discrepancies, please tell me. Time travel is hard to write about.


	4. Chapter 4

Sarada watched her father stare at Sakura in pure disbelief before his body swayed and pitched forward. She leaped right in front of him and caught him before his limp body hit the ground. 

Naruto took one look at Sasuke’s unconscious body before sniggering quietly. 

“He really couldn’t handle all that information?” Naruto asked between smug giggles. “He acts all tough like that and passes out after figuring out he marries Sakura?!” 

“Naruto this is serious.” Sarada chastised, “We need Sasuke at his full strength if we want to be able to fight this crazy demon lady!” 

“I’ll wake him up.” Mitsuki volunteered cheerily, “My parent has provided me with several foolproof ways to bring a sleeping person back to consciousness.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Boruto said, “Go ahead and wake Sasuke up. Now since we’ve all revealed some crazy-ass secrets, can you tell us this? Is your parent your mom or your dad?!” 

“I have no incentive to reveal that to you.” Mitsuki stated, waking Sasuke up. 

“Come on man! I’ve been wondering forever!”

“We have more important topics to worry about. We’ll discuss matters that don’t concern you later.”

“Just wake my dad up damn it!” Sakura vented, glaring at Mitsuki with her sharingan active. 

“Of course!” He squeaked, “Almost done!”

 

Sasuke sat up slowly. His vision was still blurred, but he could make out a head of blue hair and bright yellow eyes directly above his face. As his vision began to focus, he noticed that Mitsuki was indeed leaning over his face, looking worried. Sasuke reeled back in surprise, pushing himself away from Mitsuki. In attempt to escape the genin, he backed into Sakura’s legs. 

“Sasuke,” She began, her voice soothing and sweet, “Take it easy for a second, you just woke up.”

Sasuke jerked his head to face Sakura, his cheeks bright red. He nodded quickly, stumbled to his feet and went off to sulk in the corner. The edges of Sakura’s mouth were raised in the beginning stages of a smile. That was probably the least dignified she had ever seen Sasuke. Honestly, it was hilarious. 

“Get back here Sasuke!” Sarada commanded, “We’re going to need you for battle strategizing. Get over yourself and help us.”

Sasuke shot her a signature Uchiha glare. 

Sarada retaliated with a near identical look. “I’m an Uchiha too.” 

“Will you two stop your Uchiha glares and moodiness?!” Boruto whined, interrupting the angry glare session. 

Sarada turned promptly on her heel and faced the group. “Anyway,” she started, sticking her tongue out at Boruto, “as I said earlier, when the creepy lady shows up again, Naruto’s gonna need to ask the Kyuubi for a little help.”

“I really don’t think he’ll listen…” Naruto muttered.

“Like hell he will.” Sasuke growled, rejoining the group, “I’m an Uchiha, my sharingan can help control him.”

“Sasuke are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sakura looked at him worriedly, “It’s the Kyuubi we’re talking about. From what I’ve heard, even Madara had trouble controlling him.” 

“I’ll manage.”

“Don’t forget, we have two pairs of sharingan!” Sarada butted in, displaying her dojutsu. 

“You should scratch that idea now and forget about it.” Mitsuki added, his voice light and uncaring. “There’s no way that two young Uchiha, both of which lack the mangekyo sharingan, would even be able to convince the Kyuubi to sit. Naruto will have to get really mad, then his true powers will be released. Same goes for you Sasuke. If you want that curse mark to lend you any power, you have to get rather angry. Of course that’ll be easy for the Uchiha given his moody disposition…” Mitsuki stopped his slight rambling and took a good look at the genin surrounding him. “Oh, did I say the wrong thing? My apologies.”

“Mitsuki,” Boruto started, patting his teammate on the shoulder, “If we survive this shit, we’re going to need to talk about how to interact with people. I don’t think you really get it.”

“I’d be happy to learn more about human interactions with you Boruto.” Mitsuki replied sweetly, “Was that better?”

“Shut up and tell me how you know about the mangekyo sharingan.” Sasuke had grabbed Mitsuki by the arm and was glaring at him with his sharingan active. 

“My parent told me all about the sharingan’s different forms. I can tell your eyes are slightly underdeveloped for your age, you must have awakened your sharingan late. Unlike our Sarada here. She awakened hers before even graduating from the academy!”

Sasuke gave Mitsuki a bestial snarl. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Actually I know a lot about you Uchiha-san. You will become a large part of my parent’s life when you get older, trust me.”

“NONE OF THAT’S GOING TO MATTER IF WE DON’T SURVIVE THIS!” Sakura yelled, interrupting Sasuke’s rage-driven argument. “STOP ACTING LIKE BABIES AND WORK WITH THE PLAN. IF ANY ONE OF US DIES, THINK OF ALL THE TIME-STREAM PROBLEMS THERE WILL BE. GET OVER YOURSELVES!”

The genin instantly quieted at Sakura’s furious outburst. 

“Your mom’s scary as ever.” Boruto whispered to Sarada, inching away from the furious pink haired girl.

“For you Sasuke,” Sakura growled, glaring at the Uchiha boy, “would you stop being so damn suspicious of everyone around you. No one in this group is trying to kill you, focus on the lady actually  _ trying _ to take your life!” 

Sasuke looked at his feet in embarrassment. The last person he’d expected to call him out on anything was Sakura. And here she was, chastising him like he was an ignorant schoolboy. 

“Sarada, stop trying to take absolute control over everything. I see that you get your bossyness from me, but reign it in! You’re not an omnipotent queen or an omniscient battle strategist. You’re a genin like the rest of us, step down from your imaginary pedestal!” Sakura shook her head exasperation. She was about to go through every person here and give them detailed criticism in hopes that they’d shape the hell up. 

Sarada nodded slowly. She wanted to feel embarrassed or shameful, but all she felt was a calming sense of familiarity from the pink-haired kunoichi. 

“Boruto, Naruto, this isn’t a joke. Act like shinobi.” That’s all Sakura had for the father and son duo. Honestly, what else was she supposed to say?

“Yeah, I got it Sakura-chan.” They responded in unison, glaring at each other afterwards. 

“And Mitsuki,” Sakura was at a loss for words. “I don’t even know what to say about you. All I know is that I’ll have a serious talk with your ‘parent’ at some point in my life. This person seems like a real piece of work.”

“Uh, you do realize that our entire plan is foiled right?” Boruto pointed out meekly, “If Sarada and Sasuke don’t have a chance in controlling the Kyuubi, what the flying fuck are we going to do?”

“I HAVE A BRILLIANT PLAN!” Naruto exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. 

“This is a bad sign, a really bad sign…” Sasuke muttered. 

“We set up pitfalls!” Naruto formed his arms into a circle, “We set them up all around the clearing, then we wait! I’ll lure the creepy lady in with my sexy jutsu then she’ll fall splat into one of the holes! Bing, bang, boom, we got her!” 

“You know,” Sarada started thoughtfully, “that’s not a terrible idea! One addition, we add exploding tags at the bottom of the pitfalls so that she’ll blow up upon contact.”

“Hold on,” Sakura grinned playfully, “for once I agree with Naruto’s plan. I advise we have Sasuke or Sarada cast a genjutsu on the lady so that she doesn’t see the blatant pitfalls. It saves up from accidentally falling in them if we forget where they are.”

“We need someone to act as a decoy.” Sasuke added, much to everyone’s surprise. “Someone who can use shadow clones really effectively should crouch in the corner of the clearing, appearing to be hurt in order to lure the creepy lady to the pitfall. Naruto, you’ll do it. Scratch the sexy jutsu idea, it’s dumb.”

“I actually thought the sexy jutsu idea would be cool.” Boruto whined, crossing his arms and pouting. 

“What did I say about growing the hell up?” Boruto felt an icy cold presence behind him. He turned his head slowly, dreading the sight of what was lurking right behind his back. When the creature was in his range of sight, he saw a pair of the most terrifying eyes; the two spheres were full of pure, unadulterated malice. The sight of an angry Sakura was even more terrifying than the glare of an Uchiha. 

“My most sincere apologies Sakura-hime!” Boruto cried, falling to his knees right by Sakura’s feet. “I promise to act like a strong shinobi from now on, just don’t kill me! Please!” 

“Good Boruto.” She purred, smirking lightly. “Now stand up and help initiate the plan.”

“Yes Sakura-hime!”

The genin began their preparations. Naruto sent five shadow clones into the forest as look outs in case the crazy lady managed to find them more quickly than expected. Mitsuki seemed to have a strange affinity towards digging deep holes rather quickly because of some ‘jutsu my parent taught me in case I was ever in the need’, and Sakura was using her precise chakra control to scale the walls of the ditches in order to place the exploding tags inside. Boruto had (rather stupidly really) volunteered to be the Uchiha’s genjutsu guinea pig and was currently being subjected to having his brain be taken over time after time again. After the tenth-or maybe even twentieth attempt at a good, synchronized genjutsu, the two Uchiha finally achieved their goal. 

“Perfect!” Sarada exclaimed, “If everyone else is ready, we should get into position.”

“Hn.” Sasuke replied, entering the clearing. He walked towards Sakura with extreme caution; falling into a pitfall and getting blown into pieces was not high on his list of things to do. 

“Oh hello Sasuke-kun!” Sakura greeted, standing nonchalantly on the wall of a pitfall, several exploding tags in her hand. “This is the last hole. I’m almost done. How’d the genjutsu go?”

“Well actually.” He responded, “Our genjutsu styles are rather compatible.”

“I mean you  _ are  _ related.” Sakura attached the last exploding tag to the wall of the ditch. She exited the ditch using a chakra enhanced jump and landed smoothly next to Sasuke. 

Sasuke nodded jerkily, a small blush creeping up his cheeks. “Now that you’re finished, we should get into position.” 

“That’s a good idea.” Sakura nodded her head. “I’ll make sure Naruto gets his shadow clones all set up.”

The genin crouched in the trees, masking their chakra as well as they possibly could. Sarada and Sasuke sat near the entrance of the clearing, sharingan active. After a few minutes of tense anticipation, Sasuke spotted the enemy. He nudged Sarada’s shoulder gently as they both activated their synchronized genjutsu. Sarada watched how the woman’s chakra flow was slightly altered, proving their success. 

“Phase two!” She whispered so that only her teammates could hear. 

The enemy spotted Naruto’s shadow clone at the end of the clearing. Naruto really was one hell of an actor. The way the shadow clone whimpered and shook was extremely convincing. The enemy walked slowly up to the shadow clone, ready to ambush it. 

Sakura held her breath in anticipation. The first pitfall was only a few feet in front of the enemy, and Sakura suspected that she wouldn’t be able to avoid it. Much to the genin’s delight, the woman fell right into the ditch, setting off all the explosive tags. After the explosion had run its course, Sarada jumped down from her perch in the branches and struck the ground with a chakra infused punch in case the enemy had done the impossible and survived the shit storm they had been through. 

“OUR PLAN WORKED!” Naruto exclaimed, scanning the now decimated clearing.

“Whew!” Boruto sighed, patting Naruto on the back. “Now all we need to do is find the crazy mastermind, save the world, and find a way to go home! No biggie.”

“Well at least we got that out of the way.” Sarada pointed out, “I’m still really curious about why that lady wanted Sasuke’s sharingan so much. And if she was after a sharingan, why wasn’t she seeking out mine. No offense Sasuke, but mine  _ is _ more developed.”

“None taken.” Sasuke muttered, “Sakura, do you remember the whole forest of death incident.”

“How could I forget?” Sakura sighed, recalling the horrible details, “The snake bastard. Orochimaru or something. He-she- _ it _ wanted your sharingan, correct?”

“Hn.” 

“Well this whole fiasco seems like something that ass-face would think up don’t you think?”

“It does. Not to mention, the crazy lady sent to hunt me down hardly seemed human. I heard that Orochimaru was exiled from Konoha because of his horrendous experiments on humans.”

While Sakura and Sasuke were talking, they failed to notice Sarada futilely trying to hold back giggles. 

_ The Orochimaru of their time must have been  _ way  _ different than the one that came to Mitsuki’s parent teacher conference with their hair braided intricately at the top of their head while wearing a bright pink kimono.  _ She thought, remembering her utter surprise when she had walked into parent-teacher conferences with her mother, expecting to see the usual parents. Her mother had been sitting in the waiting room sipping her coffee daintily, accidentally crushing a mug or two (more like twelve) if someone made a sly comment about Sasuke when Orochimaru came strutting into the room, Mitsuki tailing closely behind him. He had greeted Sarada rather sweetly, asking how her sharingan was developing and how Sasuke was fairing. The teachers, of course, were not as used to Orochimaru’s spontaneous arrivals as the Uchiha’s were so they were practically dripping pools of sweat when they saw the sannin/ex-criminal waltz nonchalantly into the school. Sarada really wondered how terrible Orochimaru had been all those years ago. She suspected he was pretty terrible, given the fact that Sasuke visibly flinched every time his name was brought up.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Boruto shrieked, interrupting Sarada’s train of thought. “I swear to god this woman is indestructible. Also, this is becoming one hell of a cliché. Sakura, smoke bomb please?” 

Sarada turned her head to see the rather macabre sight of their pursuer’s body reconstructing itself right in front of her eyes.  _ Definitely not human.  _ She thought, shuddering.  _ No way that thing’s human.  _

“Damn it! I thought our plan was really good! I never factored in the possibility that the crazy lady was immortal!”

“Give me Sasuke Uchiha!” The immortal pursuer demanded. At the moment, she was only a torso (with chunks missing), a bloody head, and some form of legs, making her seem at least 50 times more frightening. “I’m Jinora and Master Hiroyuki has ordered me to fetch Sasuke Uchiha. Do not interfere!”

“Tough luck bitch!” Naruto spat, sticking out his tongue as Sakura threw her last smoke bomb into the clearing.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, you may be thinking: ugh, this girl cannot write! Every chapter ends the same way. For the love of god, change something up or I'm going to DIE! I promise the next chapter will be different. The plot WILL develop and I WILL try to write better. Hope you don't hate me!


	5. Chapter 5

“You understand that we can’t challenge Jinora then run away forever right? We need to confront her and destroy her once and for all.” Sakura sighed once they were safe from their immortal pursuer. 

“Yeah, that’s what we just tried to do.” Boruto responded, playing with his kunai. “It’s kinda hard to destroy someone who can never die.”

“I know that!” Sakura fumed, “We just need to blow her to bits or something then bury her underground for all of eternity. That or find out whatever is making her immortal.”

“There could be someone who is controlling her remotely.” Mitsuki pitched in. “I’ve heard of scenarios where there is someone who has branded one of their subordinates, ultimately making them able to spring back to life as long as the controller is alive. I think it’s rather barbaric.”

“Well, if Mitsuki thinks it’s barbaric, it must be straight from the pits of hell.” Boruto muttered, shuddering at the thought. 

“What are we gonna do?” Naruto whined, “I really want to kick Jinora’s ass. Like really, really bad. She pisses me off ya know!”

“She’s getting on all of our nerves dobe.” Sasuke rolled her dark eyes, “Does anyone have a plan?”

“Sakura, Naruto, and I have been formulating all of the plans. Do you care to pitch in?” Sarada asked, matching his glare. 

“We need to find another cave.” Sasuke crossed his arms.

“Care to elaborate?”

“We can trap Jinora in a pile of rocks after we collapse the cave.”

“She’s already wary of our luring plans.” Sakura sighed, “There’s no way she’s fall for it; she’d be onto us in a second.”

“All we have to do is engage her in battle then inconspicuously lead Jinora into the cave.”

“Alright,” Sakura started, weighing the plan in her mind, “say we are able to lure Jinora into the cave. Then what? How do we trap her in the collapsing rubble without getting ourselves killed in the process?”

“Also,” Sarada shook her head and rubbed her temples, “Mitsuki and I were talking about this potential war. Since it involves grabbing people from all over the time-stream, the war will impact history completely. It will be utterly devastating. Another question, why were we pulled in? Are we going to have to participate in the war as well? Given the fact that we’re measly genin, we don’t seem like prime choice material.”

“Anyone could have gallivanted through that portal.” Sakura said matter-of-factly, “I don’t think it had anything to do with us personally.”

“But it didn’t drag Kakashi-sensei in with the rest of us!” Naruto retorted, “And from what Boruto told me, it didn’t take future Sasuke either.”

“I really don’t get it!” Boruto whined, “Why did they take young weak Sasuke when they could’ve taken the older, stronger Sasuke? It just doesn’t make sense!”

“It really doesn’t.” Sasuke agreed, brushing off Boruto’s unintentional insult, “What do Jinora and that Master Hiroyuki she spoke of want? If they wanted strong fighters, they could’ve taken the future versions of all of us, supposing we all become strong ninja of course. What  _ do  _ they want?”

“I’ve got an idea!” Sarada exclaimed, “It’s not about what we’re here for ‘cause I don’t have any fucking clue about that, but, I have a plan for Jinora. Instead of killing her or incapacitating her, we need to question her! She could tell us what we’re going to be used for and then we’ll know what we’re fighting. All we need to do is trap her.”

“I can seal chakra.” Mitsuki stated.

“Why didn’t you tell us that before?!” Naruto’s azure eyes doubled in size, “That could’ve been hella useful ya know!”

Mitsuki looked at Naruto thoughtfully. “Hm, I suppose you’re right.”

“Well of course I am. When am I ever wrong?”

“Most of the time dobe.” Sasuke muttered, “Anyway, if you can seal chakra, you need to do that the second we encounter Jinora. If you do that, she won’t be able to use any jutsus.”

“Also,” Sakura added, her face brightening, “I can bet that Jinora’s linked to whoever is controlling her by chakra. Think about it, what else could she be bound by?”

Sarada and Mitsuki both nodded. “My parent told me that he ran preliminary tests for this type of control, and he believed that the only way to achieve a high level of control plus reanimation would be through the chakra network.”

“Edo tensei.” Sarada blurted, “I-it’s kinda different, but my mom was talking about it recently. Someone is reanimated but they are completely controlled by the jutsu-caster. Maybe whatever is going on with Jinora is like that except instead of bringing back the dead, death is being prevented.”

“So in conclusion, all we have to do is seal her chakra?” Sakura questioned, nodding slowly.

Sasuke shook his head, “That depends on whether Jinora is actually bound by her chakra network.” 

“But say she is. Then she’ll be mortal and defeatable?”

“Hn.” 

“Dammit Sasuke!” Boruto exclaimed, “Stop being so monosyllabic! I don’t know what you mean!”

“That was a ‘yes’.” Sarada replied knowingly. “The ‘no’ ‘hn’ is slightly more nasal and is usually accompanied by an eye-roll or a look of utter contempt.”

Sasuke looked taken-aback by Sarada’s thorough personality dialysis, but his slightly disturbed expression faded quickly. “This time, we don’t need to set up any elaborate traps. We just need to wait in the open until she finds us.”

“This could easily go badly.” Sakura warned, ever on the cautious side of the argument, “What if Mitsuki fails? Then what? We’ll be out in the open where Jinora could easily destroy us.”

“I won’t fail.” Mitsuki assured his peers, “I am fully capable of performing this task.”

“You could’ve just said, ‘Sure I got this! No need to doubt me!’ The whole ‘fully capable’ part was a bit extra.” Boruto sighed with exasperation. Mitsuki will never learn.

“Ah, I made a behavioral error again, didn’t I?” Mitsuki frowned, “You will need to mentor me more.”

“Can we just get going?” Sakura groaned, “We all know that Mitsuki has absolutely zero social skills, let’s just get this plan started.”

“Follow me.” Sasuke commanded, leading the line. “All we need to find is a clearing.”

The six genin jumped through the trees, scanning the forest for an opening. 

“Got one!” Naruto exclaimed, launching himself off the tree branch and rolling to the the ground of a beautiful clearing.

“If we weren’t in a life-or-death situation, I’d take a moment to sit here and take in the scenery.” Sakura sighed, gazing at the way the morning sun bathed the clearing a pink-hued light. A slight breeze rustled the leafy branches as the grass too swayed in the wind. 

“I agree.” Naruto gave a signature smile, “Now let’s trap this crazy woman, save the world, and get the hell out of here!”

“That’s the plan!” Sarada replied, cracking her knuckles, “Now we just wait. Jinora will find us sooner or later.”

The genin sat down on the grass, trying to appear relaxed. Thoughts were flooding Sarada’s brain. She understood the plan, in fact, she had even taken time to dissect it and weigh all the possible outcomes. It seemed decent; decent  _ if  _ Mitsuki successfully sealed Jinora’s jutsu. Decent  _ if  _ Jinora was really bound by her chakra. Decent  _ if  _ the plan went without kinks. The more Sarada thought about it, the more she realized that the sheer amount of ‘ifs’ were quite worrisome. There were so many ways this plan could fail. 

“I sense someone.” Boruto whispered, “Can’t you feel it?”

The genin nodded in unison, scanning their surroundings. Seconds later, Jinora came flying through the trees, fist aimed straight at Sasuke. Anticipating the move, Mitsuki intercepted Jinora’s strike, planted his palms on her abdomen and performed the jutsu. 

“You did it!” Naruto cried, “You rock Mitsuki!”

“Don’t celebrate yet.” Sasuke warned, trapping Jinora in a genjutsu, “We still need to interrogate her and get answers.”

Sarada stepped next to Sasuke, syncing her chakra with his. Within minutes, she had joined Sasuke’s genjutsu. 

The sky looked grey and overcast. Actually, it didn’t look overcast, the sky was far too slick and flat for there to be any clouds. The rest of the landscape looked bleak as well, sending uncomfortable shivers up Sarada’s spine. She looked around her, quickly noticing the bound figure on the ground. As she got closer she realized that the prisoner was Jinora. 

“This is a very elaborate genjutsu.” Sarada pointed out, “Almost better than what I can do.”

Sasuke grunted as he molded the earth around Jinora to lift her in the air. “That’s the good thing about genjutsu. The control you have in your own illusion makes you feel like a god.”

“Don’t let it get to your head. You already have a pretty severe superiority complex.”

Sasuke grunted again, sharingan eyes directed at his captor. 

“Why did you bring us here?” He asked menacingly, tightening the restraints around Jinora.

“Why do you think you were brought here?” Her voice monotonous as ever, “I would love to break myself out, but it seems as if my chakra was sealed. I guess I have no choice but to tell you everything you want to know. It will be of no consequence to me.”

“What do you mean?” Sasuke growled.

“Don’t waste your time on idiotic questions like that. I know you can’t hold this genjutsu forever.” 

Sarada activated her own sharingan, pouring her chakra into the illusion. As she added more chakra, the genjutsu became more lifelike. “I wouldn’t worry about Sasuke’s chakra reserves. He has me after all. Now tell us,” she crossed her arms, “why didn’t you take our future selves?”

“They would be harder to control.” Jinora made no effort to writhe against her restraints. Her lack of resistance bothered Sarada. 

“Do elaborate.” She hissed, conjuring up kunai and positioning them at Jinora’s neck. 

“Isn’t it obvious?” She grinned sadistically, “Master Hiroyuki and I need to be able to manipulate you. If you were older and stronger, it would be more difficult.”

“Why do you need to control us?!” Sasuke growled, adding kunais to Sarada’s collection. 

“Once we have the last two sharingan wielders, the nine-tailed jinchuuriki and his son, the soon-to-be greatest medic in history, and the son of someone… well special, we can speed up their growth and increase their strength. With such powerhouses at our disposal, what can’t we do?”

“You want to gather all the strong ninja from the past and future and pitch them against each other, creating a devastating war.” Sarada muttered, quoting her teammate, “If you do that, the dimension you’ve pulled us to is sure to crumble from the sheer force of the war, ripping a titanic hole in the time-space continuum. Why the hell do you think that’s a good idea?!”

“You seem to have finally grasped our plan.” Jinora commended the two Uchiha, “As for why we want to do it, you’ll find out soon. It’s too bad that you can do absolutely nothing about it.”

“That’s not true.” Sasuke shook his head defiantly, “If we defeat Master Hiroyuki, we’ll be sent back to our timestream and everything will be normal.”

“Defeat Master Hiroyuki?” Jinora burst into a fit of disturbing laughter, “Oh you poor genin. You couldn’t even catch me without me letting myself get caught.”

“What do you mean?!” Sarada shrieked, willing the kunai closer to Jinora’s neck, “Why the fuck would you let yourself get caught?!”

“Don’t lose your temper now.” Jinora appeared unfazed by Sarada’s anger-driven outburst, “As I said before, telling you the reason that you’re here has no negative impacts on me. Your chakra supply is waning, I do believe that it’s time to stop the genjutsu. You can kill me once the illusion is released, it won’t do you any good.”

Sasuke glared at Jinora, hate coursing through his body. He raised his fingers and muttered kai, causing the dreary landscape to dissipate.

“Sasuke, Sarada, how’d it go? Did you get any information?” Naruto asked enthusiastically. 

Sarada whipped out her katana and drove the blade into Jinora’s chest. “I know it ‘won’t do me any good’, but it’ll make me feel a hell of a lot better.”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked, cocking his head in confusion.

“God. We learned a lot.” Sarada sighed, “I’ll fill you in on the details, but in short, we’re screwed. And I mean really, really fucked.” 

“I really don’t like the sound of that.” Sakura clenched her teeth, “Just when we think we’ve finally got the upper hand, we realize that we’re-and I quote Sarada, ‘really, really fucked’.”

“So anyway, to summarize what we learned: we were pulled into this dimension as our younger selves so that we can be controlled. Once we are under their control, they will speed up our growth and development, turning us into weapons essentially. Also, Jinora let herself get caught since apparently, revealing all that information had ‘no consequence’ to her.” Sarada shook her head angrily, looking at the genin’s aghast expressions. 

“Who’s ‘they’?” Boruto asked.

“Essentially some guy named Master Hiroyuki.” Sarada replied, “Though I can assume that he’s got more cronies.”

“I’m scared.” Sakura admitted, “I told myself I wouldn’t be the helpless little girl anymore, but I’m really, really scared.”

“We all are.” Boruto assured, “But I’m not only scared, I’m also angry. And once I find out who is responsible for this, I’m going to whoop their ass to Sunagakure.”

“Not if I can get to this ‘Master Hiroyuki’ first.” Sarada growled.

“New plan.” Naruto announced, “Kill master Hiroyuki, save the world, and get the hell out of here!”

“I second that plan.” Boruto agreed, patting Naruto on the back.

“Same here.” Sarada grinned.

“And me.” Sakura said, pumping her fist in the air.

“I do suppose I comply.” Mitsuki added, smiling like-well, Mitsuki.

“Yeah, I guess the dobe’s right.” Sasuke sighed. 

“Well if we’re all in agreement, let’s kick some ass!” Naruto exclaimed.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada! This chapter ended differently than the last! It's getting close to the climax, so I'd expect this fic to be about 10 chapters or so. Nothing incredibly long.


	6. Chapter 6

“I’m glad we’ve all decided to kill Hiroyuki, but we don’t know how to get to him. How are we supposed to locate him? Who knows how big this dimension is.” Sarada sighed.

Naruto tapped his chin thoughtfully, “You know what would really help?” He asked, “A bird’s-eye-view of this place.”

“Sure dobe, but how are we going to get one of those?” Sasuke smirked.

Boruto and Mitsuki looked at each other devilishly. “Wind jutsu.” Boruto cackled, “We can shoot anyone straight into the sky. I mean we’ve only done it horizontally with Sarada, but vertically can’t be that different, right?”

“Wait, so we’re going to have to rely on your probably-faulty-because-you’ve-never-tried-it wind jutsu to launch Naruto in the air? What if you kill him? Then you’ll just cease to exist!” Sakura exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air.

“What other choice do we have? We could wander aimlessly for days and probably not find Hiroyuki’s abode.” Sasuke replied, siding with Naruto for once. 

“I suppose you have a point.” Sakura admitted, finally capitulating to Naruto, “Who wants to be the test subject? I don’t think Naruto’s the best choice.” 

Sarada looked around thoughtfully, “It can’t be Boruto or Mitsuki since they’re performing the jutsu, and neither you nor Naruto have good enough vision.”

“So you’re saying it has to be either me or you.” Sasuke concluded. “I’m not doing it.”

“Why do you get to disqualify yourself like that?” Sarada retorted, placing her hands on her hips.

“Because I don’t trust mini-dobe.”

“You’re lying.”

Sasuke looked away uncomfortably. He had been caught in a lie by his future daughter. “Fine.” He spit out, “It’s because your sharingan is more developed than mine.”

Sarada smirked victoriously. She had finally gotten  _ the  _ Sasuke Uchiha to admit one of his shortcomings to her. Exciting. “I suppose I’ll do it then.”

 

Boruto and Mitsuki stood in the middle of the clearing, Sarada standing between them, her body poised. 

“We’ll try not to kill you Sarada-chan.” Boruto said, cracking his neck.

“Yes Sarada-hime. We will be sure to not end your life.” Mitsuki added on, nodding in agreement. 

“Why’d you call me ‘Sarada-hime’?” Sarada asked, looking quizzically at Mitsuki. 

“It is proper to treat someone with utmost respect before you possibly take their life-correct?”

“Absolutely not!” Boruto exclaimed, “Where the fuck’d you hear that?!”

“My parent.” 

Sarada and Boruto groaned. “Just launch me in the air, would ya?” Sarada sighed, activating her sharingan.

“Let’s do this then.” Boruto and Mitsuki quickly weaved the hand-signs for the jutsu. “Brace yourself Sarada!” 

Sarada shot up like a rocket, flying over the trees and into the blue sky. From her absurdly high vantage point, she was able to make out a dark building in the west edge of the expansive forest. 

“There’s some fort-building thing on the west edge!” She exclaimed, praying that her teammates would hear her. After relaying her message, she turned until she was spread-eagle in the air, waiting for the ground to come closer so her teammates could lower her down with wind jutsu. As the ground came nearer, she noticed that the clearing wasn’t directly below her now. In fact, her teammates were at least several hundred feet away from her approximate alighting point. 

“Damn it!” She cried, the ground coming nearer and nearer. She didn’t know what to do as there were mere seconds before she hit the ground and probably hurt herself. She tensed her muscles and hardened her body for the inevitable painful impact, hoping that she would somehow manage to survive the fall. 

 

“Mitsuki, Boruto!” Sakura shrieked, “Sarada’s not above us anymore!” 

“What do you mean?!” Boruto replied urgently, scanning the sky. His eyes caught a flash of quickly falling red. “Shit! She’s gonna fall before I get there, what do I do?!” He began to sprint towards her. 

“Uh, I don’t know!” Sakura panicked, worrying that her future daughter was about to perish before her eyes, “Try to cushion her fall from where you are!”

“It won’t do enough!” 

“But it’ll do something!” Tears pricked at the edge of Sakura’s eyes, but she willed them not to fall. She berated herself for watching someone dear to her get hurt and do nothing but watch and cry. More than anything, she wanted to not be a hindrance, but her teammates were just so damn strong and fast, what was she supposed to do? 

 

3...2…. Sarada suddenly felt a strong gust of wind soften the still-painful fall. She breathed a sigh of relief before succumbing to the pain and falling unconscious. 

“Is she alive?” Sasuke asked, panic leaking into his voice. 

Sakura put her hand to Sarada’s jugular and gave a relieved nod. “I think she broke some bones, but I don’t know how to fix them!” She looked at Sarada’s ankle, bent in a way no ankle should bend. If she didn’t fix it, Sarada wouldn’t be able to walk, much less fight. 

“In our time, you’re a really badass healer.” Boruto said, looking worriedly at Sarada, “Maybe you could try to heal her?”

“I don’t know how it’s done!” Sakura cried, “Sure I’ve read a couple texts, but they’re mostly just on basic first aid. I don’t know how to fix something of this caliber.”

“Are you sure it’s just broken bones?” Sasuke inquired, “I mean, she’s unconscious right?”

“She could’ve passed out from the pain of breaking so many bones. It’s not necessarily brain damage.” Sakura replied, inspecting Sarada’s body. “So the ankle is definitely broken. Along with the right wrist and a couple others in the same arm. I’m not entirely sure about the ribs, but I can suspect some of them were at least bruised upon contact.”

“She seems pretty damn beat up.” Naruto muttered, grimacing at her bruised body, “At least we know where that Hiroyuki bastard is hiding.”

“That is true.” Sasuke agreed, “The problem is that we can’t do anything if Sarada can’t walk or fight. We can’t afford for her to be a deadweight.”

“I’ll try to fix what I can.” Sakura announced, “I’m not experienced in any right, but I can set the bones and hopefully speed up the healing process. I doubt I have the chakra to do anything substantial though.”

“I’ll lend you some.” Sasuke looked Sakura dead in the eye. “She is..” he hesitated, “our daughter after all.”

Sakura wanted to squeal with satisfaction, but she made the decision that there were better times to show her fangirl side. “Alright.” She said firmly, “Let’s get started then.”

Sakura kneeled by Sarada’s side and began with her ankle, since there’d be no point in healing the other bones if she couldn’t walk. “Mitsuki, Naruto, Boruto,” she started, “hold her down. This is going to be painful.”

Once Sarada was securely pinned to the ground, Sakura took a deep breath. She remembered what she had read in the medical textbooks: always begin to pull slowly. If the bone is out of place, the muscles have likely tightened around it. If you pull quickly, the muscles will tighten more; if you pull slowly, you can loosen the muscles and ease the bone back into place. 

Sakura began the procedure, slowly moving the ankle into its proper position. She saw Sarada’s face contort in pain, even in her unconscious state, and hoped that she wouldn’t wake up during the healing session. 

Once Sakura was satisfied with the positioning, she motioned for Sasuke to sit next to her. 

“I’m going to begin the healing jutsu now.” She said with as much confidence as she could muster, “I’m going to need your chakra.”

Sasuke nodded and placed his hands on Sakura’s back. Her body shuddered with the sudden rush of chakra and she began to heal. She focused her chakra on the fracture, closing her eyes and navigating the limb. Sakura was amazed at the way she could see the bone using only her chakra. “Okay. I’m going to try and stitch the bone back together.” She willed her chakra to meld the separated bones together. She could feel the fibers moving towards each other like magnets, finally meeting in the middle and weaving together until they were whole again. Sakura basked in the feeling of successes, her cheeks flushed with happiness as she realized what she had done. 

“I did it.” She whispered breathlessly, “I fixed something. I really, truly fixed something!”

“I believed in you the whole time Sakura-chan!” Naruto exclaimed, “Now onto the next bone!”

Sakura nodded. “How are your chakra levels holding up?” She looked at Sasuke.

“They’re fine.” He replied, “Keep going.”

“I don’t have to set the bones in that arm, but I still have to be careful to not hurt Sarada.”

She cradled Sarada’s arm gently, inspecting the breaks. She sighed with relief when she realized that they weren’t particularly serious and easier to heal than the ankle. Sakura took a deep breath, channeling Sasuke’s chakra through her own system. She realized how rough his chakra was compared to hers; as if hers was made for healing and creating, and his for destroying. 

“Alright, moving onto the next break.” She announced, willing her hands to glow a soft green. It was easier this time, but she still couldn’t control the flesh and bone the way she wished she could. She figured that she would need a whole lot more training before she would be able to perform this procedure with ease. 

Once she felt satisfied with her work, she leaned back and took several deep breaths. Even though Sasuke was lending her chakra, the act of transferring it and controlling it was rather taxing. 

“Are you okay?” Sasuke inquired, taking his hands off Sakura’s back, “She’s not dying anymore.”

“I’m fine.” Sakura insisted, “I’m going to fix every bone in her body.”

Naruto admired Sakura’s resolve. The past 24 hours had really changed the kunoichi; she had started as the Sasuke obsessed fangirl that constantly hit and criticized Naruto and had metamorphosed into a strong, determined medic. 

“You’re really fucking awesome Sakura-chan.” Naruto said, and he really, really meant it.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter's kinda short, I just wanted to finish this up so I could start getting into the climax and ending. I hope you guys like it!


	7. Chapter 7

Sarada took a couple of hours to wake up, but when she did, she was surprisingly all right.

“How am I not dead right now?” She asked confusedly, glancing at the other genin, “I fell from really high up. I should be an Uchiha pancake.”

Sakura giggled, “You’re lucky I’m a not-so-amazing medic and that Boruto uses wind jutsu well!” She flashed Sarada a thumbs up and helped her to her feet. “I’m really glad you’re feeling better. Now let’s tackle the big problem. We know where Hiroyuki is, but we have no idea about how strong he is. Plus, he may have more people to back him up.”

“I know, but we’re never going to be able to escape unless we face him.” Naruto crossed his arms confidently, “I think we should just rush in and attack him. Then we can whoop his ass and save the world! Good plan right?”

“I liked the pitfall one better.” Sarada stated simply, pushing herself onto her feet, “We need to investigate a bit first. If we can get a rough idea of what’s going on in there, we’ll have a better chance of knowing what to do.”

“How are we going to investigate without being detected?” Sasuke entered the conversation, “None of us have chakra masking skills at a high enough level to evade even a chunin level ninja.”

“Ugh.” Sakura groaned, “You have a point.”

“I have above-average chakra masking abilities.” Mitsuki offered, smiling as usual.

“We need incredible, not ‘above average’.” Naruto insisted, shaking his head.

“Well they’re far from as good as Sasuke’s, or future Sasuke’s rather, but I can evade most chunin and jonin.” Mitsuki insisted.

“You better not be lying.” Sasuke threatened, “If you get us caught, I will  _ not  _ be happy.”

“Your personal happiness is not my concern. I’m more concerned for the well-being of this team as a whole.”

Naruto could see Sasuke visibly tense. Realizing that having an on-edge Uchiha was probably detrimental to their teamwork, he lay a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Chill man. You know how weird Mitsuki is.”

“Yeah Sasuke-kun.” Sakura agreed, “Mitsuki won’t fail. And if he does, well that means that he’s just as good as the rest of us.”

“Hn.” Sasuke didn’t visibly show any appreciation for his teammates support, but it was obvious that he was grateful for them.

“We should start going in the direction of the base.” Sarada suggested, “We should stop about three-quarters of a mile from the base, then send Mitsuki. I know average chakra sensing range is half a mile, but I have no idea how good Hiroyuki is.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Boruto agreed. “Hey Sarada?” He suddenly donned an apologetic look, “I’m really sorry for suggesting the ‘launch Sarada in the air’ plan. If it wasn’t for Sakura, you probably wouldn’t be standing right now.”

“It’s okay Boruto.” Sarada said sincerely, “Thanks to that plan, we know where to go. Not to mention, I really appreciate you rushing over to save me. If it weren’t for  _ you _ , I would have been dead.”

Boruto didn’t know why, but he felt his cheeks fill with a sudden warmth. Actually, he  _ did  _ know, but he refused to accept that truth so he filled his mind with possible alternate explanations. Perhaps it was the rising sun and subsequently rising temperature or maybe chakra exhaustion having a late reaction? Boruto speculated that it could be anything as long as it wasn’t the truth. “T-thank you.” He sputtered, realizing that he hadn’t responded to Sarada.

The Uchiha looked at him with her kind, understanding eyes, the rising sun illuminating her face. Much to his surprise, Sakura voiced his exact thoughts.

“Sarada, you look gorgeous right now.” She said, in awe of her future daughter’s beauty.

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto interrupted, “we should get going. The later it gets, the more visible we become.”

“You’re right Naruto.” She agreed, “I can ogle at Sarada’s beauty later. Must be my genes.”

“Let’s go.” Sasuke commanded, beginning to run towards the hide-out. 

The other five genin followed quickly in suite, catching up to Sasuke. They were all aware that Hiroyuki could be far above their level, and that they could potentially be trapped in this dimension until the space-time continuum was ripped into ribbons, but they were willing to take a risk if it meant saving the world they loved. 

“We don’t have the foggiest idea of how strong Hiroyuki is.” Sarada pointed out, looking concerned, “He could be goddamn sannin level for all we know.”

“All six of us could take a sannin for sure!” Naruto exclaimed confidently, “We’re all really strong!”

Sarada really admired Naruto’s optimism. Though it had been somewhat masked in the future, she could tell that Naruto hadn’t changed as drastically as she would have expected. “Yeah, Naruto’s right.” She nodded her head, “I’m sure we’ll be fine!”

The six genin reached their desired destination in less than a half-hour. They knew that they were about to enter a battle that they had absolutely no strategy, prep-time, or idea about, but hell, they were ready. 

“Go Mitsuki.” Sasuke commanded, “We’re counting on you.”

The boy nodded, formed a ram seal, and ran off towards the fortress.

“While Mitsuki’s gone, we need to strategize.” Sakura suggested, “Though we don’t know exactly what we’re facing,  we should have some sort of general formation.”

Sasuke, Sakura, Mitsuki, Naruto, and Boruto nodded in agreement. “Since I’m the healer, I’ll stay in the back.” Sakura said.

“Sarada and I will flank the left and right sides.” Sasuke offered, glancing at the other Uchiha. 

“Since Boruto and Naruto are the most resistant, they should stand in the front.” Sakura tranced a diamond in the air, “Mitsuki can join me in the back since his stretchy-arm thing can reach as far as needed.”

“Sounds good.” Sarada agreed, “I’m kind of nervous, you know.” She admitted, pushing up her glasses, “It really worried me when Jinora said that she ‘let us win’. I’m worried that we’re just falling into a big hoax.”

“Maybe, but we shouldn’t think about that right now.” Sasuke assured, “If we really are playing right to their plan, we’ll just have to destroy them.”

“You make it sound like we will actually be able to defeat them.” Sakura shook her head, “I understand that you’re strong, but you’re underestimating Hiroyuki’s potential.”

“You only say that because you’re weak.” Sasuke spat. 

Sarada didn’t see the warm, loving eyes of her father, instead she saw two cold black spheres that reflected nothing but malice. 

“If we don’t escape this dimension, I’ll never be able to defeat  _ him _ . Failure is not an option.”

“This isn’t about you Sasuke.” Naruto crossed his arms, “You always make everything about you and your stupid revenge. We don’t want to be stuck in this dimension forever either! I can’t be Hokage if we’re here!”

“It’s not about you either.” Sasuke clenched his teeth.

“You’re right teme, it’s about is getting the hell out of here!” Naruto tackled Sasuke to the ground, dirt rising up in clouds around them. “Stop being such an ass and start working with us as a team. Also, how dare you call Sakura-chan weak when she just saved your daughter’s life?!”

“She’s not my daughter yet.” Sasuke hissed, throwing the blonde off of him, “For all I know, these changes may make it so that I never even have a daughter. Why should it matter to me?”

Sarada snapped. In the blink of an eye, she had flash-stepped in front of the Uchiha and punched him at least eight meters backwards. “It should matter to you.” She said menacingly, “Because despite the fact that you’re a self-centered, stupid,  _ annoying  _ little boy right now, you’re still going to be my father in the future and I’m expecting you to  _ step the fuck up _ pretty soon. So start appreciating your teammates and work with us so that we  _ all  _ can get out of this godforsaken dimension.”

Sasuke spat out a mouthful of blood and glared at Sarada. 

“I’d love to fight you right now.” Sarada growled, “And trust me, I would, except killing you would mean I disappear. Count your blessings.”

“You wish you could even lay a finger on me.” Sasuke taunted, smirking.

“Are you going senile or really that stupid? Take a look at your bloodied face, I already laid an entire  _ fist  _ on you.” Sarada’s sharingan eyes were blazing red, the tomoe spinning in a dizzying circle. 

Sasuke was aware that he had lost the argument, but backing down was absolutely not his style. Instead, he glared back at the genin and stomped off into the forest.

“Teme!” Naruto called, jogging after Sasuke, “Come back, we need to all be together when Mitsuki gets back.”

“Fuck off.” Sasuke didn’t look back.

 

Naruto wanted to scream. Yes, that would be somewhat satisfying, but the most satisfying thing would be to give his emo-ass of a teammate a good beating. Of course, Sarada had already done that, but Naruto wanted his share. How entitled could he be? He gets vaguely offended by the well-meaning Sakura, throws a hissy fit, insults his future daughter, and goes stomping off, expecting to be allowed to come gallivanting back whenever the hell he wants. He was so moody! Maybe his curse mark was acting up? No. He didn’t get excuses. He was being a prissy little douche and he would have to suffer the consequences. Naruto would make sure of that. 

“That asshole!” Naruto spat, “He knows we have to all be together if we want to defeat Hiroyuki right? He can’t just go running off into the forest to whine and sulk ‘cause he got a little offended’! That’s just stupid.”

Sarada nodded, “I’m going to go find him.” She reached into her pouch and pulled out two mini radios, “Take one of these. If I’m not back in ten minutes, use it to call me.”

Naruto fastened the radio around his neck and nodded, hoping the Sarada could convince Sasuke to return. 

 

Sarada made her way through the dense forest, following Sasuke’s blatant footsteps. 

_ That diva.  _ She thought, shaking her head,  _ He wanted someone to find him.  _

It didn’t take Sarada more than five minutes to find Sasuke, and when she did, she wanted to slap him even more. Instead of pacing around or burning his teammates in effigy, he was sitting like an owl in a tree, sharingan blazing, spitting small fireballs at falling leaves. 

“Sasuke.” She leapt into the tree and grabbed his wrist. “You’re coming back right now. For the love of god, don’t put up a fight.”

“Let go of me.” Sasuke growled with menace, “I’ll come back when I want to come back.”

“And that better be now.” Sarada’s grip didn’t relent as she commenced in a vicious staring battle with her father, “Do you want to get out of this damn dimension?”

Sasuke snorted and looked away. 

“I’ll take that as a yes, you monosyllabic asshole. I know you wanted someone to find you, now come back so we can defeat Hiroyuki. Your comment about Sakura being weak really made her sad you know.”

Guilt flashed over Sasuke’s features for a brief moment, “She is. She shouldn’t deny it.”

“I know you don’t think that. She saved my life you know.” Sarada tightened her grip around Sasuke’s wrist, hoping that she’d leave a bruise. “You wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

“I’ve never tried.”

“For the love of god, admit you’re wrong!” Sarada valiantly fought back the urge to slap Sasuke. Instead, she tugged at his wrist and pulled him off the tree with her, hoisting his writhing body over her shoulder and beginning to walk towards the clearing. Unfortunately for her, Sasuke’s weight was superior. Pivoting his body, he managed to throw Sarada off of him. Sarada quickly popped back onto her feet, sending a lighting-fast punch at Sasuke’s face. In the very last second, Sasuke ducked under it and sent an upper-cut towards Sarada. She too blocked the strike and leapt backwards, hoping to recalibrate. Sasuke didn’t give her that time thought. Right before she landed, Sasuke flash-stepped next to her and attempted to sweep at her feet. Sarada clumsily jumped out of the way, allowing Sasuke’s incoming fist to graze her cheek. 

“We could just go back without fighting you know!” Sarada exclaimed, raising her fists in front of her face, “If we’re injured, we can’t fight Hiroyuki.”

Sasuke said nothing, but sprung towards her, launching several kunai.

Sarada dodged them flawlessly but gave her fellow Uchiha an appalled look.    
“Are you trying to kill me you idiot?!” She exclaimed incredulously, “Get your goddamn feelings in check!”

Sasuke said nothing again, clutching at his neck for a brief moment. He winced in pain and sent a powerful roundhouse kick towards Sarada’s ribs. 

Remembering her taijutsu training well, she deflected the kick with her forearm, locked his leg in her elbow, stepped towards him, and swept his feet from under him in one quick motion. Sasuke’s back hit the ground with a powerful smack, dirt rising in clouds around him. Seconds after making impact, his body dissipated into a cloud of white smoke, leaving a log in his place. 

“Damn you.” Sarada hissed. She focussed on sensing the chakra around her. Right before she found Sasuke’s masked presence, she felt something else. The presence was so faint, she knew that it was the work of a highly skilled ninja. Because the level of the jutsu was so high, Sarada could not tell whether the ninja to whom the presence belonged was right behind her or yards away. 

“Sasuke!” She called, her voice urgent, “There’s someone else here! Get over here now!”

Sarada received no response, but saw black hair in the distance and let out a heavy sigh. As the figure got closer, Sarada began to realize that something was wrong. Sasuke was not that tall. He was not wearing a flowy robe and his hair was not long and tied into a ponytail. As soon as the person’s face came into view, she realized that it was not Sasuke at all, but someone who looked a lot like him. The more she thought about it really, he looked a lot like her too. 

“Who are you?” The man asked calmly, approaching Sarada.

“Why don’t you tell me first?” She retorted, activating her sharingan.

“That’s impossible.” The man murmured, “I killed them all. All but one, and you are not him.”

“What are you talking about?” Sarada stepped back from the man, her mind racing.  _ Who could this possibly be? What did he mean ‘kill them all’? Was he talking about my sharingan and the fact that I’m an Uchiha? Wait. This is a time neutral zone. He could be my son or my great-great-great-grandfather. There’s no way I’d know.  _ “You never answered my question.” Sarada insisted, “Who are you?”

“Ah, but you didn’t answer mine. You are impossible, girl. From whom did you steal those sharingan?” The man flashed his own crimson pair, his face still indifferent. 

“I didn’t steal these from anyone.” Sarada hissed, “I’m an Uchiha, just like you. What time did you come from?”

“You cannot be an Uchiha.” The man shook his head, “And you know what time I came from. The same as you.”

“No! You didn’t! This is a time-neutral dimension. I could be you ancestor or your great-niece or something like that.”

The man’s face suddenly looked shocked. “How many ninja wars have there been?” He asked, his face returning to its usual stoic self.

“Four.” Sarada replied without hesitation. “You… you look a lot like my father.”

“Who might you father be?”

Sarada realized that telling her father’s name was not detrimental. If this man was from the future, he’d know how strong Sasuke was, and if he was from the past, well he wouldn’t know who he was. Somehow, Sarada forgot to think about what would happen if the man was from the same generation as her father. “Sasuke Uchiha.” She replied confidently, “I’m Sarada Uchiha. Who are you?”

The man looked even more shocked. Actually, no. He looked frankly distressed. His dark eyes melted in sadness, but shone with a bit of hope. “I am his brother.  You must be wondering how I got here." Sarada nodded intently. "In short, I was using a teleportation jutsu to travel to the meeting location for the...organization I belong to, but due to my...dwindling health, I took the wrong turn in a sense." As if on cue, Itachi coughed violently into his hand, revealing a circle of blood.

“Uncle Itachi.” Sarada whispered, also worried by the blood on her uncle’s hand. “I’ve always wanted to meet you. My father says such amazing things about you and about how strong you were.”

“Does he now?” Itachi seemed to be smiling, “But since you have never met me, I could suppose I’m not alive in your day?”

“No.” Sarada shook her head sadly, “I honestly don’t know what happened, but it’s-it’s a really touchy subject for papa.”

“I understand.” Itachi nodded his head thoughtfully, “He did as I expected. Good.”

“I have so many questions!” Sarada exclaimed, grinning expectantly at her uncle, “I really want to know why there are so few Uchihas! Papa always says he’ll tell me when I’m older, but he hasn’t yet. I also want to know more about the sharingan. All of the scrolls say that it is awakened through emotional trauma, but that’s not how mine was awakened. Mine was awakened through happiness and expectancy.”

“That is strange.” Itachi concluded. Suddenly he tensed. Turning abruptly to Sarada, he flashed his spinning mangekyou sharingan. Sarada was instantly caught in the genjutsu.

“I’m sorry Sarada, but I had to trap you in this genjutsu since Sasuke was about to arrive.” Itachi spoke soothingly inside the red-hued genjutsu. 

“Why can’t we all talk together?” Sarada asked, “You know, like a family.”

Itachi chuckled lightly, “Our situation is a complicated one. I will show you if you’d like. Just the images that I am allowed of course. Some of it is up to your father.”

“That’s what everyone says! Whenever I ask what happened, they say that Papa has to tell me!”

“They’re correct.” Itachi kneeled next to Sarada, “Ask your papa next time.” He gently poked her forehead. 

“You’re just like him.” Sarada murmured, placing her hand over her forehead. “Show me what you can.”

Itachi nodded, forming his hands into a ram seal. 

_ Images of Sasuke as a child flashed before Sarada’s eyes making her giggle happily. She watched him trip over his own chubby feet and she watched him sit like a king on Itachi’s shoulders. Soon, the images took a darker turn, flashing to Itachi’s encounter with his father in the Nakano shrine. Shortly after, Itachi showed the Uchiha massacre. Sarada tried her best not to cry as she saw the uncle she had just held so close to her heart minutes ago rip down her ancestors. She could have met her grandparents, aunts, and uncles if not for him. Still, she knew he had a reason. If he didn’t why would her father hold him in such high regards? Thankfully her questions were answered. She saw the orders that Itachi had received from the village elders.  _

Suddenly the vision ended and Sarada was left in the first layer of the genjutsu. 

“That’s all I can tell you.” Itachi said, smiling a melancholy smile, “Sasuke has arrived and I must let you go. Please act as if I attacked you. You’ll understand why now.”

Sarada nodded. This time, she understood why her father was angry at Itachi. He had not been told the details; all he knew was that Itachi had murdered his family. His anger was justified. 

The walls of the genjutsu fell away as if it was melting, leaving Sarada feeling disoriented and dizzy. The world around her spun, making her wobble on her feet. 

“Sarada.” Sasuke sounded slightly worried. “Sarada, what happened.”

She tried to focus on Sasuke’s figure, but he kept oscillating between two blurry versions of himself. Noticing that Sarada was having trouble balancing, Sasuke stepped behind her and supported her weight. 

“What happened?” He implored, gritting his teeth, “That bastard. What did he do to you?”

“I-I was looking for you and-” Sarada remembered Itachi’s request, “he ambushed me and trapped me in a genjutsu. He showed me really terrible images.” She shuddered, realizing that she wasn’t completely lying. 

“I was worried.” Sasuke muttered, “When I saw  _ him  _ with you, I was worried that I’d-I’d lose you too.”

Sarada smiled as the figure of her father began to come into focus. “Thank you.” She replied, resting her head on his shoulder.

This time, Sasuke didn’t flinch. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahaha, I've had this chapter written for months, but I totally forgot to post it! Anyway, here you go.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. Please leave comments and kudos!


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